Storage-enabled access points for improved mobile performance: An evaluation study

Abstract

Due to existing networking paradigms and people communication habits, Internet is characterized by: (i) information that associates more and more with network edges, while corresponding traffic doesn't, (ii) a considerable amount of unexplored network resources that resides near mobile users, while their connectivity is usually poor and expensive in terms of financial cost and resource consumption. To address the above challenges, we introduce a cooperative networking scheme where Home Access Points are equipped with storage capabilities and offer connectivity to mobile users. Whenever connectivity sharing is unavailable, the access points store the pending data and transmit it once connectivity becomes available. We explore how storage-enabled opportunistic routing algorithms can handle periods of intermittent connectivity. We experiment with realistic scenarios based on real network configurations and mobility maps. Our results demonstrate the potential of the proposed paradigm as well as guide us to define its follow-up evolution steps. © 2011 IFIP International Federation for Information Processing.